Your Favourite Theme-and-Variations

[listener]

I forgot!!  CHOPIN   Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" - op. 2  for piano and orch.
(and now that tune will haunt me for weeks again).

[Karl Henning]

Thread Duty:

Flies under a lot of people's radar, but I like it: Mompou's Variations sur un thème de Chopin.

[North Star]

Bach: Ciaconna (2nd Solo Violin Partita)
Beethoven: 3rd Symphony, Marcia funebre
Beethoven: 7th Symphony, Adagietto
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 32, Op.111 - 2nd mov.
Schubert: String Quartet No. 14, Death and the Maiden - slow movement
Brahms: String Sextet No. 1 - 2nd movement
Rachmaninoff: Paganini
Britten: Variations on a theme by Frank Bridge

[Opus106]

Point of information:

The chaconne is a variation form, but . ..  not theme and variations, strictly speaking.

(I have no opinion on whether this is in compliance with the OP.)

Thanks for bring it up, Karl. My intention for this thread was originally for plain, old unambiguous T&V: the ones in which a layman like myself would be able to easily pick out the thread (the theme) connecting each variation even without being told about it. (Of course, there are some exceptions to the rule... like Beethoven's Op. 120, for instance, listening to which I'm sometimes left wondering how he arrives at those moments of utter beauty all the way from a simple dance melody.) But now I realise that if a little "leeway" is provided (and GMG, I know, always welcomes people to list their fourth and fifth favourite whatever from their top three ), I can come across some potentially interesting music to listen to (like Godowski's Passacaglia that Bobster recommended).

[Jared]

this will certtainly be getting an airing over the next few days... however today it has been:

Bach: Christmas Oratorio (Gardiner)
Handel: Messiah (McCreesh)

[Karl Henning]

(Puzzled by Praetorius.)

[Opus106]

I'm puzzled by the whole post. Is the theme Christmas with the variations being musical settings celebrating it?

[kyjo]

Braga Santos' colorful Symphonic Variations on a popular song from the Alentejo is the one that first comes to mind.

[Sammy]

Three that are by far my favorites:

Bach - Goldberg Variations
Beethoven - Diabelli Variations
Brahms - Handel Variations

[Brian]

Huh! I thought this thread had a discussion between Karl, Sforzando, and myself about whether the funeral march from Beethoven's Eroica qualifies as a theme-and-variations, but that discussion is clearly not here.

Anyway, I posted once already, but will add to that original list Grieg's Old Norwegian Romance and Mozart's variations on the theme now known as "Twinkle, twinkle little star."

[kyjo]

Grieg's Old Norwegian Romance

That's a great one, all right! Oh, and, of course, the Rach Paganini is a great fave of mine.

[Todd]

Bach - Goldberg Variations
Beethoven - Diabelli Variations
Brahms - Handel Variations

The perfect list.

[PaulSC]

Three that are by far my favorites:

Bach - Goldberg Variations
Beethoven - Diabelli Variations
Brahms - Handel Variations

As much as I love Brahms, his big variations sets (Handel, Paganini) have never become favorites for me. I'll keep revisiting them for sure. Meanwhile, I'm with you on the first two, and I'll add Copland's Piano Variations to complete my personal "big three".

[madaboutmahler]

Schnittke (K)ein Sommernachtstraum

Brahms St Anthony
Rachmaninov and Lutoslawski Paganini..

[Karl Henning]

Ginastera, Variaciones concertantes
"Papa," Vars on « Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser »
LvB, Adagio molto e cantabile from the Op.125
Игорь Фëдорович, the Quattro variazioni from the Concerto per due pianoforti
Britten, Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
Walton, Variations on a Theme by Hindemith

[Karl Henning]

Сергей Васильевич, Variations on a Theme by Corelli

[aquablob]

Three that are by far my favorites:

Bach - Goldberg Variations
Beethoven - Diabelli Variations
Brahms - Handel Variations

The perfect list.

Seconded.

If I could keep three,
those are the three I would keep.
Haiku!—This is one!

[Christo]

Ginastera, Variaciones concertantes

[Christo]

Braga Santos' colorful Symphonic Variations on a popular song from the Alentejo is the one that first comes to mind.

About the first piece I heard by him. I was stunned, even if the recording was abysmal. #memories

[jochanaan]

Many of the usual suspects have been mentioned, along with others that sound fascinating.  I would only add Bartok's Second Violin Concerto.  As some of you probably know, Bartok wanted to write a large concert piece for violin in variation form, but the violinist who commissioned it insisted on a three-movement work.  So Bartok gave him one, but later pointed out that despite being in three movements, it actually was a variation set.  The final movement is a large variation of the first one; the middle movement is an actual variation set (and what a set it is!), while the recapitulations in first and last movements are actually variations.